News Round Up: Heroic Mode Boss Changes, Justice Points in 5.2

Today's news round up covers some heroic boss nerfs, as well a a few 5.2 teasers--pet battles will have a chance to give you Lesser Charm of Good Fortune, and if you're capped on Valor Points, doing additional content that usually rewards Valor Points will give you Justice Points. (Keep in mind nothing is set in stone at all, these 5.2 ideas may change.) In addition, a lot of Warriors weren't happy about the nerf from last week, so Blizzard explained their reasoning in great detail.

The damage dealt by Touch of Sha no longer increases for each Protector that is defeated in the Heroic mode version of this encounter.

Reputation and Lesser Charms in 5.2

Draztal

title says it all.

I really dont want to do dailies every day.

I guess you might like this... The developers are currently planning to include bonus reputation that can be earned via scenarios and dungeons. It doesn't necessarily mean it'll be through tabards and in the exact same way as back in the days, but sounds close enough to what you want!

I really don't want to do dailies for coins either, why can't we just get them from HC's as well?

Actually, not from heroics, but the developers are planning to let you have a chante to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune through Pet Battles. Basically, if you win, you'll have a chance of receiving charms based on your pet level.

And if a player is below level 90, they'll get experience equal to defeating a yellow creature.

Justice Points in 5.2

Taepsilum

There are some changes planned for 5.2, for example, we would like to make Valor Points convert to Justice as long as you’re Valor capped.

Click the cut to read about the reasoning behind ability nerfs, and Blizzard in ImagineFX Magazine!

Taepsilum

Hello Cohax,

No one likes to see nerfs being done to their class, unfortunately it’s one of those things that a game like WoW is always subject to, and there are just too many variables, limited resources and schedules to keep.

So sometimes we have to hotfix stuff, the problem is that players will always get used to the “overpowered” abilities, and when the nerf comes the disappointment is inevitable.

As you can imagine this is definitely not in our interest, we want our players to have fun; this is a game after all.

The problem is that when someone is “having fun” due to having an overpowered ability or class/spec, that usually comes at the cost of someone else feeling miserable when they realize that there’s nothing that they can do to counter such class/spec/ability.

So ideally we would like to have a perfectly balanced game without having to hotfix anything at all, this way no one would have to miss being overpowered and then feel mad after being nerfed, there would also be no need for anyone to ever feel underpowered as well. Sadly this is too idealistic, but it’s a noble goal that we always like to have in the back of our minds when we design our games.

Let’s get to the point, wasn’t overpowered in itself, yes it hit very hard, but like you said, Chaos Bolt hits very hard as well, so why the nerf? Well is tied to Heroic Strike and that makes it particularly dangerous because it’s out of the CGD.

If you’re casting a Chaos Bolt you can be interrupted, you have to stand still, you can lose LoS and it has a somewhat long casting time.

Now if you’re a warrior and the stars align, you can have 5 stacks of , Mortal Strike + Heroic Strike + Auto Attack + mastery proc all in the very same instant, that can literally be a 1-shot and that is something that we don’t want to see happening in PvP, it’s just not acceptable.

Taking out 50% of HP from someone can be ok as long as you can’t take 50% of HP followed by an equivalent powerful attack from the same source, the enemy needs to have enough time to land a heal or recover is some other way before you take the rest of his HP, this is where skill comes in, if you’re able to stop that player from recovering during that time, then well played!

I’m not saying that PvP is perfectly tuned right now, I’m sure that we will have more hotfixes coming in the near future, devs are constantly analysing data and listening to your feedback and they will keep trying to bring the game closer to a state of perfect balance as best and as fast as they possibly can.

If capping at 1 stack proves to be an excessively strong nerf, you can be sure that devs will catch it when they analyse fresh new data, if that happens they can always change TfB again directly or make up for the nerf in some other way, like buffing some other ability or indirectly by bringing the other classes that might be too powerful to the same level as the warrior. In the end the goal is simply balance, and there is an infinite number of ways to get there.I guess my question is, why do developers say they're content with something and defend their decision not to change it, then suddenly find it 'unacceptable' and change it?There’s a saying in my country that says “only fools never change their minds”.

Developers are not machines, they do their very best at trying to design the game as balanced as possible, it’s true that some opinions can be very strong sometimes, but the values that are initially attributed to constants and variables in the formulas for most abilities are not simply made up on the spot, there’s extensive math involved there and sometimes it’s only natural that one can trust the math a bit too strongly, the problem is that sometimes math doesn’t directly translate to a live gaming environment, so an ability/spell can look absolutely perfect on paper and in a simulation but still end up being horribly tuned for certain PvP situations because simulating 11 classes, 34 specs, talents, glyphs, and human behaviour all at the same time is never easy.

This game is incredibly vast and we need a lot of resources, proper data, and a good amount of samples to be able to really check out all the facts, constant data analysis and listening to reliable feedback can have a tremendous effect in catalysing and accelerating changes being applied to the game because it can point devs in the right direction, thus saving our most precious asset, time.

If you look at the rate of constant hotfixes and patches that we release, you can’t really say that devs are stubborn, if anything, WoW must be one of the most iterated games of all time, it’s in a permanent state of change, constantly adapting to the needs and requirements of the present time, that means that devs are quite open minded and are always ready to listen to facts and the opinions of others, also remember that most of them are also players so they have the same experience that you do, they want to make this game the best that it can possibly be, both as players and as developers, and that’s a tough combination to beat if you ask me. Almost no one can have a grasp over everything in WoW, it’s simply that vast. This game is a beast ;)

If we ever appear to be locked into some fixed idea it’s because there must be a very strong reason for it, and also because applying changes always takes time, quality control is particularly important, we want to avoid applying changes and then going back and forth regretting about them later on, so time for proper testing is extremely important for assuring reliability.

Blizzard in ImagineFX Magazine

Blizzard

The December edition of ImagineFX magazine is now on sale and packed with a little something extra for Blizzard art enthusiasts, including tutorials and how-to information from some of the artists that help bring World of Warcraft to life. You’ll also get to take a look into Blizzard Entertainment’s Fine Arts Project; a unique gathering of some of the world’s greatest contemporary fantasy artists creating their own visions of the Blizzard universe. Legends including Alex Ross, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Craig Mullins, Alex Horley, Todd Lockwood, and Syd Mead share their experiences and showcase the incredible pieces of art they produced for the project.

Art by Paul Bonner

Blizzard’s artists are featured throughout this memorable issue. Their contributions begin with new cover art for the magazine from Glenn Rane, featuring Alliance heroine Jaina Proudmoore. Inside you’ll find Samwise Didier explaining how to depict an epic fight between two heroes, and Laurel D. Austin sharing her approach to creating dynamic groups of characters in the workshop section.

Whether you’re an artist or just someone who appreciates fantasy art, this issue would make a worthy addition to your collection.

Comments

Comment by angelofdeath666

on 2012-12-18T13:08:52-06:00

well that with the reputations is really good

Comment by Araka13

on 2012-12-18T13:13:51-06:00

I've really been waiting for some kind of reward for pet battles. Lesser Charm of Good Fortune for high levels and XP for lower levels sounds awesome to me. Maybe that will encourage a few more people to invest some time into pet battles.

Comment by IcyFrozen

on 2012-12-18T13:21:39-06:00

I didnt have an issue with dailies for rep, especially the ones tied to profs which I found to be a great way to level profs for MoP. That being said I can understand why people disinterested in lore, etc would be annoyed so I think connecting the rep to scenarios (we need a reason to bother with these) and dungeons is a good idea.

The pet battles stuff is very awesome newsm i have found getting charms difficult now that I'm exalted with all the daily factions. Will be very happy to have my Pet Battle Dailies reward a few charms. I realize that we'll probally never get our Rare Candy equivalent, 'free level' item, but have you considered something that would give an additional experience gain buff for a hour or two as a rare item alongside the Battle Stones? (which btw were an awesome addition)

For Warriors; as a pally I feel your pain. Just another example of PVP dictating the game.

Comment by Eralson

on 2012-12-18T13:49:05-06:00

why can't we just get them from HC's as well?

I've never been able to figure out: What does HC stand for? I know it means heroic, but is it "Heroic Content?" "Hard Core?" "HeroiC?" "Hard Cookies?"

Comment by ikenaikoto

on 2012-12-18T14:08:34-06:00

why can't we just get them from HC's as well?

I've never been able to figure out: What does HC stand for? I know it means heroic, but is it "Heroic Content?" "Hard Core?" "HeroiC?" "Hard Cookies?"

^ this..

Comment by kingbeck

on 2012-12-18T14:32:15-06:00

holy cow, my post in general topic must have been heard, getting justice points when you are valor capped. only had like two replies and it vanished into the nether. yay, i will finally be getting justice points for the first time on a regular basis in MoP.

Comment by Jurasco

on 2012-12-18T16:38:50-06:00

holy cow, my post in general topic must have been heard, getting justice points when you are valor capped. only had like two replies and it vanished into the nether. yay, i will finally be getting justice points for the first time on a regular basis in MoP.

lol, yep

Comment by PieceOfPanic

on 2012-12-18T16:56:52-06:00

IMO, the arena-pvp part in general should require much more nerfs. Everything is a rush, and it takes no more than few secs to kill healers. For example as a druid healer, I have no chance what so ever to help myself, if i first get into the claws of melee char. Well, yea, i can pop and jump away, but only from roots. The global cooldowns I get, makes it impossible to keep myself alive or use my bad-ass druid abilities. Even with immune to stun from symbiose from the DK, and nature's grasp and my HOTs... I needa be the one to throw the first CC, or else i can't flip the situation around. Though. In BG's they work like a charm.

Don't know if druidhealers are just supposed to stay away from arena? If i'm all wrong, explain some serious tacs. Cus I got Dreadful, and have arena'ed for quite some years now. Never had this big trouble with a druidhealer.

Comment by gorski

on 2012-12-18T18:04:50-06:00

Quality-of-life changes that we won't see for months. gg.

Comment by BahamutBBob

on 2012-12-18T19:17:25-06:00

Since they've been doing all this account based stuff in MoP, and now that they're doing something with VP, I think they should make it so once you earn 1000 (Maybe more, 1500? 1250? Something balanced) VP in a week on your whole account, you should get the 50% bonus.

Otherwise, I probably won't gear up my Warlock, since my Mage is my focus, and I don't want to have to spend so much more time playing, just to gear up another character for LFR in the upcoming patches.

Comment by Mikeztarp

on 2012-12-18T20:00:44-06:00

So we're going to be able to get charms by playing Pokemon. Will we also be able to earn epic loot by playing Skylanders?

Comment by Ruhig

on 2012-12-18T21:17:31-06:00

So we're going to be able to get charms by playing Pokemon. Will we also be able to earn epic loot by playing Skylanders?

If you want to sit and run 90 pet battles in a row, be my guest.

Comment by JefeTheWise

on 2012-12-19T04:29:55-06:00

I'm glad blizz was moving away from dungeon rep grinding, but this daily grinding is rather annoying... maybe a mix of the two, or something new.. i dont want to complain, just getting my thoughts out there.

Comment by snipervictim

on 2012-12-19T10:15:36-06:00

jps huh well what if you dont need them either i mean i have no use for jps at all now why not just cash.

Comment by craktbon

on 2012-12-19T15:19:39-06:00

I don't quite see the point of getting JP instead of VP if you are Valor capped. If you are running enough instances/dailies to be VP capped then the chances of your toon benefiting from JP purchases is slim to none, and only slightly higher are the chances that another toon on that account can make use of them. The account-wide bonus to VP gain acquired by VP capping which is awesome btw, in fact encourages players to toon switch at VP cap not to continue running dungeons/dailies on that same toon. Now getting a more useful reward for running random heroics like your choice of rep commendation tokens worth 500 pre-bonus rep and 250 for scenarios or say motes of harmony maybe 3-5 for heroics and 1-3 for scenarios that would be more useful. Just like in the constant forums of complaints about LFR's 'sorry no loot for you here's 28.5g problem' players myself included legitimately feel as though blizz has lost touch with what constitutes a fair and valued reward for the effort expended. I'm not one to argue that the rate of reward should be increased, just that blizz should really assess whether the reward being offered in and of itself is a viable one regardless of quantity.

Comment by Rainemard

on 2012-12-19T22:19:51-06:00

From what I remember, Dragon Soul's LFR didn't reliably reward me with anything, but - each half DID give 250 VP.

The problem in Mists is that, not only does LFR seem to have an incredibly low chance of giving you a reward, but you're given a mere 90 VP for your time & effort. That's only 10 more than doing a random Heroic.

Then there's the slowly-correcting problem of actually using that VP. It's all reputation-locked. If Blizzard wanted to make tabards meaningful rewards again, like in TBC, they should've also brought back the dungeon reputations (Hellfire dungeons gave Thrallmar rep, Caverns of Time dungeons gave Keepers of Time, etc.) Hopefully with 5.2 the reputation problem may be solved, or at least alleviated.

Comment by Mantrhax

on 2012-12-20T07:55:08-06:00

All this blah blah about warriors nerf, again, nerf based on PVP coming into pve...stupid ideia for people who doesnt even care about pvp.... its time to change and make 2 specs, one for pve and one for pvp and let pve alone .making 60% sufer to please 40% isnt a good move at all. is it ?

Comment by Interest

on 2012-12-20T08:06:57-06:00

There are some changes planned for 5.2, for example, we would like to make Valor Points convert to Justice as long as you’re Valor capped.

This made me very happy inside.

As for Taste For Blood, why can't the damn passive effect that affects Heroic Strike just die? There's many ways to replace the mechanic with one that isn't stupidly dangerous to PvP and is beneficial for PvE Warriors.

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